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The use of successful collection development practices is an important part of a library's service to its users. A number of reports are available to assist library staff in collection development.

The LINCC Reports Manual contains information on report formats and retrieval strategies for General Retrieval Forms (GRF) and the Shelf List (see Unit 2, Lesson 5). This information may be helpful in collection development work.

The Overlap Analysis Report, available through the FLVC Help Center, can be used with the Serials Holdings report (S016) to provide information about which journals are available with full text in an online resource. The report also includes locally-purchased electronic journals as long as the college has informed FLVC about these and they are in the SFX database. The reports can be used together determine which print periodical titles to cancel without losing access to needed content.

Relevant reports are available from the LINCC Reports Service (LRS) and from the Aleph client, as described below.

Resources Needed

The most important step in successful collection development is the acquisition of materials that are relevant and useful to the population served. Several reports can assist with questions about recent acquisition history, gaps in the collection, and trends across other college libraries.